Abstract Scope |
Prediction of the ductile-brittle transition temperature is a key issue in the assessment of structure integrity in many industries and applications. In this work we focus on the transition observed on the absorbed energy in Charpy V-Notched (CVN) impact tests on low alloy steels. First, an isotropic flow equation is obtained by analytical integration of multiscale modeling results. The equation accounts for the effects of temperature, strain rate, dislocation density, grain size, density and size of irradiation defects. Then, finite element simulations of CVN impact tests are performed to identify the stress intensification factor, strain rate and plastic strain at general yield condition where the principal stress is maximum. This result allows to predict the temperature of fracture at general yield. Without any further parameter, the predicted embrittlement trend is found in agreement with experiment confirming that embrittlement is mainly induced by hardening. |